I work as a Business Analyst for an Insurance Company by day. I love to travel. I’m somewhat fluent in Swahili (working on this everyday though!)

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Discuss your music career.

Prior to being a solo artist I focused on being a producer. I decided to pursue a solo career because I was tired of dealing with the egos of artists. I also get more satisfaction working on whole albums as opposed to doing a song here and a song there.

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Elaborate on your artist’s name.

Nave is my middle name backwards (Evan). I added the period ‘.’ inside of N.ave to avoid clashes with artists that have similar names. I also like to think that N.ave also stands for New Avenues.

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List your five favourite music videos with reasons.

Flashing Lights by Kanye – I am a fan of simple artistic videos. This video says so much by being minimalistic.

We Dem Boyz by Wiz Khalifa – I am a fan of videos and film that appear to have been shot in a single take.

King of the Fall by The Weeknd – This is a non-album single for The Weeknd. This video captures how I felt when I first saw the video.

Are you that Somebody by Aaliyah – I might be choosing this for nostalgia but I loved the hell out of this video when I was a kid.

Through the Wire by Kanye – Kanye is somewhat problematic but his videos are always spectacular. This was his first video and highlighted his accident and rise to fame via a cork board. It’s a great video.

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Tell us your source of inspiration.

I’m inspired by other good music. I just want to get better. I want to say things differently.

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Tell us your impression on dealing with paparazzi.

There needs to be ground rules. It’s OK to snap pictures when at events but there needs to be a respect zone. Stars should not be harassed when at their homes, going grocery shopping, etc.

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Elaborate on the recording of this song.

Long story short, I made the beat and decided to write on it. I sent it to a friend of mine to rap with me but he never finished the verse. Out of frustration I went searching for another artist. I was told to email IDK’s (formerly Jay IDK) management and he decided to do it. Next thing I know IDK’s career takes off as I’m releasing my project.

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Tell us your future projects.

My goal is to release 4 EP’s this year. I have released ‘Black Professional’ & ‘Black Magic’ thus far. I think the next project will be out this August. It’ll have the prefix of Black again but I haven’t decided on the whole name yet.

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List the names of those that have supported you so far.

Countless people and I know I will forget people. So I will leave it at the most important person: My wife Gloria.

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Tell us your point of view on vocal tuning.

If you referring to Auto tune then I’m more or less ambivalent. It’s a tool that can be used. Some people overdo it but in moderation it is cool.

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Tell us your thought on quality and quantity for the release of songs.

This reminds me of the Project Management Triangle “Pick 2 out of 3: Fast, Good or Cheap.” I personally don’t like the speed at which music comes out because I can hear the poor mixing and issues with a lot of releases. Though technology is better a lot of the mixes nowadays are so bad. I love the new music, I just think, as an industry, the mixing quality has declined.

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Tell us your viewpoint on comparing music career to non-music career.

The music industry is brutal. There isn’t a lot of transparency and everyone isn’t compensated. If you look at the film industry (even though there are a lot of problems #metoo) everyone from the stars to the guys who are in the wardrobe department get paid and credited. You can have a middle class income in the film industry. I don’t think it’s as easy in music IMO.

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Tell us your opinion on categorizing music into genres and sub-genres.

I don’t think it’s a problem. It helps me define my taste more. For example, I was never a fan of Crunk (Hip-Hop) but I like Trap (Hip-Hop).

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State the genre you despise most with reason.

The easy answer is to say Country Music but I don’t listen to it enough to have an opinion (though Ke$ha’s album was really good and had country influences in it).

(Top 40) R&B is one of the more frustrating genres for me though. I don’t feel like it has evolved as much as I would have hoped. It’s now more a derivative of Hip-Hop.

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List your five favourite movies with reasons.

The Dark Knight – I love this movie. Amazing villain. Best Batman film hands down. Done by my favorite director.